As the use of computers has increased in the work environment as well as home, the demand for faster and more accurate information has followed. Users want information at their fingertips and they want the information to be correct the first time. However, with the introduction and boom of the Internet, users can be overwhelmed in information, much of it highly irrelevant. A user is then left with the task of finding the proverbial needle in the haystack of information they seek.
Search engines have become one tool for discriminating mounds of information. Conventional systems allow a user to enter keywords, and the engines search the vast amounts of data to find corresponding results. The results may be based upon the frequency that other users access that data or it may be based upon the approximated correlation between the keyword(s) searched and the different data. In short, search engines provide a means for narrowing the amount of data a user must review.
Some specific types of search engines allow a user to answer specific questions. For example, the web site “Ask Jeeves,” by Ask Jeeves, Inc. of Oakland, Calif., allows a user to type in a question and the system will perform a search and retrieval function to attempt to find an answer to the question. In operation, such a web site takes an input question of a user, such as “What is the capital of California?,” searches the Internet, and retrieves web pages that may include the answer to the question. As part of the retrieval process, an introduction portion of the web site may be included on a results page. However, a concise answer is not provided alone. The answer is provided within link to a web site. In addition, numerous irrelevant links to web pages are retrieved, requiring a user to wade through the data and perform her personal determination of the answer.